


I Want To Break Free

by chirithy (sylleblossum)



Category: Great Pretender (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Great Pretender Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26441965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylleblossum/pseuds/chirithy
Summary: Great Pretender Week - Day 1 Alternate UniverseLaurent takes the job to scam one Seiji Ozaki.His son, Makoto, may be the key.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 186





	I Want To Break Free

**Author's Note:**

> Title from ‘I Want To Break Free’ by Queen

Laurent Thierry didn’t take many jobs from Japan; sure, he knew the language and liked the culture, but he also knew enough people would do the jobs for him there. Laurent was contacted by a man named Kudo, the older man had worked with Laurent for other jobs around the world alongside Kudo’s friend Shi-Won Kim, the two were a con man duo. They did good work, and Laurent trusted them to an extent, so when Kudo sent a job request to Laurent, Laurent figured he’d give it a look.

There was a man named Seiji Ozaki, on the outside, he looked like a normal man; a well-known lawyer , a widower whose wife passed away a few years ago from cancer and a son in college following in his footsteps by studying law as well. But when you dug deep enough, Ozaki was obviously corrupt, bribery to even different felonies. The worse in his file was human trafficking. Laurent wasted no time in accepting Kudo’s job.

Abbie and Cynthia were contacted as well, though Abbie wasn’t fluent in Japanese, there were some aspects that she could help out with, such as stealth. They met up in a grand looking hotel in Tokyo to go over the details of Seiji Ozaki.

Cynthia held up a photo of Ozaki’s son, Makoto. He didn’t seem like much, a skinny plain looking boy, with dark brown hair and eyes. The photo she held was taken on the college campus he went to, so the son was wearing his everyday clothes, a white button-up under an unbuttoned vest and jeans. There was another photo on file of the boy in a suit at some gala his father had apparently taken him to; he looked more miserable in the gala photo.

“We could use the boy,” Cynthia did have a good idea. They could somehow get close to Makoto to get to his father. It was the lesser of the other evils that had been brought up, one was trying to get into the trafficking ring, but no one liked that one.

The boy, Makoto, could be the key.

Abbie was sent out to follow him. She complained that he was boring; he did the same thing everyday, go to school, stop at a coffee shop to study and then go home. On Saturday, Makoto had stopped at his mother’s grave before going back to the coffee shop. It looked like he did what he could to stay out of the house as much as he could, but he was still limited. Abbie did show herself to Makoto at one point to see if she could gain his interest but he didn’t even give a second glance. So Laurent took over following him, sending Abbie to follow after Seiji; Cynthia was already working in one of the hotels that was reported as one of the trafficking ring’s sites. 

Laurent almost agreed with Abbie, Makoto was kind of boring, but unlike Abbie, Laurent stayed in sight. He caught Makoto’s eye a couple times, not enough to look suspicious but enough to garner his attention. Makoto had given him a questioning look a time or two, but never approached Laurent.

Until one day, Makoto skipped over staying at the coffee shop. He walked out of the shop holding two coffee cups and made for the route that Laurent knew was towards his home. Taking the bait, Laurent followed.

Makoto never looked behind his back, just staring straight ahead, but somehow Laurent knew that Makoto knew the Frenchman was behind him. So Laurent wasn’t surprised when Makoto stopped outside his home’s gate, and turned to Laurent. He held out the coffee cup.

“You’ve been following me,” Makoto’s English was accented, as if he was speaking through different dialects, but it made Laurent slightly endeared to him. 

“Your father is of some interest to people I know,” Makoto’s eyebrow twitched, and there had been a flash of anger in his eyes but Makoto otherwise stayed emotionless. They both took a sip of their coffee. Laurent was surprised that the cup given to him was filled with what he normally got at the shop.

“He’s of interest to many, what makes you different?” Makoto wasn’t looking at Laurent, he was looking at his home. The boy overall looked tired with everything.

“We want to-“ Laurent was stopped in mid sentence by the Ozakis’ front door opening. Laurent looked to find Seiji Ozaki staring at both of them. In Japanese, he questioned his son.

“ _ Makoto, who is this? _ ” Makoto gave Laurent a side glance taking in Laurent’s now faked smile, before answering his father.

“ _ He is the TA for my history class. We were talking over the aspects of my next paper. He walked me home, _ ” Laurent looked at the boy in shock, why did he lie? Seiji nodded at his son, accepting it.

“ _ Well, finish up, we need to talk about something, _ ” Makoto nodded.

“ _ Yes father, _ ” Seiji walked back into his home, closing the door behind him. Makoto pulled his backpack to the front of himself, and pulled a small notebook and a pen out. He quickly wrote something down, and handed the paper to Laurent. It was an address.

“Tomorrow at 2, you will tell me who exactly you are and what you want,” Makoto righted his bag, and opened the gate to walk forward.

“Tell your little friend she can come as well,” Laurent quickly looked from the piece of paper to see a slight smirk on the boy’s face. It was gone before he turned back to the door and disappeared inside. So he had seen Abbie. Laurent found himself now intrigued by the boy.

The next day at 2 o’clock, Laurent and Abbie had found themselves standing in front of a different coffee shop, called the Lucky Cat. The interior was nothing to write about, seemingly plain. No one was behind the counter as well as not many customers, but the two confidence people ignored that in favor of walking towards Makoto, who was sitting in a booth towards the back of the shop. He was frowning down at a book in front of him. They took the seat across from the boy, gaining his attention.

“May I finally get the names of the two people who have been following me this past week?” Abbie and Laurent looked at each other, Laurent nodded allowing Abbie to disclose her identity if she wanted.

“Abbie,” Short and simple for Abbie, she never let people know her full name at first. Makoto looked to Laurent.

“Laurent Thierry,” Makoto nodded.

“Makoto Edamura,”

“Edamame?” For the first time in the week they’ve been following him, Makoto finally let emotion take over his face. The boy looked hilarious like a cat soaked in water all pissed off.

“Edamura! Not Edamame!” Laurent let himself chuckle, but still found himself intrigued by the younger man.

“Not Ozaki?” Pure anger and tiredness filled Makoto’s eyes, before shaking his head.

“No, I will not be using that man’s name for much longer,” 

“What do you mean about that?” Makoto’s answer was a smirk. The conversation was then interrupted by someone coming out of the back room. Abbie and Laurent’s eyes widened in surprise when both Kudo and Shi-Won Kim walked out, the two holding a different tray each. They gave the foreigners a smile and welcomed them, before placing a cup of coffee and some doughnuts in front of all three of the people at the table.

Makoto, still smirking, brought a coffee cup to his lips to take a sip.

“Who exactly do you think called you here, Mister Laurent Thierry?”

**Author's Note:**

> The complete AU - Seiji is never found out by police but Makoto does still find out. Makoto somehow meets Kudo and they start getting along and Makoto learns his trade. Eventually Edamame sends the job off to Kudo’s supposed boss to hopefully get Seiji Ozaki in prison for good.
> 
> I had multiple ideas for this prompt, but this one stuck out more to me. I hope y’all liked it!
> 
> I have trouble with words. So if something is misspelt, or doesn’t seem right or is out of place, please comment and tell me so I may fix it!
> 
> I have a mainly fkbu/grepre [twitter](https://twitter.com/ficsbyloch) now. And I have a major crush on Haru Kato.
> 
> Anyway love ya’ll, Loch, out!!!! <3


End file.
